‘Diana... sorry Camilla joined Charles at the Delhi games’

The head of the Dehli Commonwealth Games today blundered by claiming that Prince Charles was being accompanied in India by Princess Diana.

Suresh Kalmadi, chairman of the organising committee, managed to confuse Diana - who died in 1997 - with Camilla.

He thanked the late princess for attending Sunday's opening ceremony when he was quizzed by reporters about the empty venues and queues for tickets that have blighted the first days of the games.

Mr Kalmadi, who was booed at the opening ceremony because of the shambolic preparations, told a press conference today: "Yes, Princess Diana was there."

He then corrected himself and added: "Prince Charles and [Camilla] the Duchess of Cornwall. Now they have gone off and they appreciated all the efforts made here."

Clarence House declined to comment. Yesterday Prince Charles was pictured sitting alone in the sparsely-filled swimming complex, which had been renovated for the games. There were similar problems with other arenas, with athletes forced to compete in front of dozens rather than thousands of spectators.

One diplomatic source said: "India fought hard to get the games here for the first time and it has been such a shambles, the Indians have voted with their feet and are keeping away."

The Prince and Camilla are on a five-day trip to India. After opening the games, Charles is promoting British business and discussing plans to tackle climate change.

Today he and the duchess were visiting an air force base in Jodhpur before meeting the Maharaja and Maharani of Jodhpur.